Saancha
Hindi feature. Cast: Anupam Kher, Raghuvir Yadav, Vaishnavi, Mukesh Tiwari, Vijay Raj, Amin Gazi. Prod. Shilp Creations.
Take One1987
I started directing in 1987. Since then I've worked with — and been empanelled by — more broadcasters and institutions than fit comfortably on one page: Doordarshan, Zee TV, Colors, Sony TV, ETV, Dangal TV, Star Plus, and government bodies from the Ministry of Electronics & IT to DAVP. Everything else in this résumé — the serials, the telefilms, the awards on the wall — sits downstream of that first year behind the camera. Back then a serial was shot on tape, cut on tape, and if you were lucky, it reached the whole country at nine in the evening on one channel, because there was only one channel.
Take Two1997–2001
Aparajita ran for 815 episodes. Four years, one story, built from a Ram Kumar Bhramar novel about a woman writer and the price she pays for it. It won six awards, including a Super TV Serial Director Award and Salaam Bombay's Best Director. But what I remember isn't the trophies — it's learning that a daily soap is really an endurance sport. You don't direct 815 episodes with one good idea. You direct them by showing up on day 816 with the same attention you had on day one.
Take ThreeThe range
I have directed a supernatural thriller for ETV and a comedy built on a book of light satire. A social drama at 10pm on DD Metro and a fun family show hosted by Shekhar Suman on Zee. A documentary on child labour and a TVC for a health clinic. A ten-part series profiling the actual Kala Gurus of Indian art — Laxman Pai, Fida Hussain Nursi, Keshav Malik — for Delhi Doordarshan. I never decided to specialise, and I don't regret it. Range is its own discipline.
Take FourPeople
Writers like Arvind Gurtu and Dr. Sarojini Avinash gave me scripts worth fighting for on set. Actors like Anupam Kher, Raghuvir Yadav and Mukesh Tiwari showed up for Saancha and made a small, honest film feel bigger than its budget. I have sat on the Central Board of Film Certification's advisory panel and the Programme Advisory Committee at All India Radio — rooms where you learn that the industry is smaller, and more accountable to itself, than it looks from outside.
Take Five2026
This year I'm Creative Director on Kal Ke Krorepati — Shubh Labh, a reality format for Jio Hotstar, produced by Favcy. The set is LED and virtual production where it used to be plywood and paint, and the audience streams it on a phone where it used to gather around one television in the neighbourhood. The tools changed twice over on me. The job — get the story to land, on time, on budget, in front of people — never has.
